Rants and Raves on Espresso

Publications frequently run out of ideas, which is why the Wall Street Journal seems to be jacked on coffee articles of late. (But don’t worry — we have no plans to tell you what investments to have in your portfolio.) Just two days after making the ridiculous assertion that Illy is taking on Starbucks, the Journal published a more thoughtful piece on Asia’s “best” coffee: Ground Rules – Asia’s Best Coffee – WSJ.com.

Chronicle just published an article on peerless’ history. Would love to hear your thoughts on a local company that though haven’t had many memorable cups from are still the standout coffee for cyrus and gary danko?? No need to reiterate your thoughts on restaurant coffee though … i work at foreign cinema and we rely on roma. . .

It’s hard to say what ruins espresso shots more: Peerless Coffee, or the kind of establishment that decides to save a few bucks by serving Peerless Coffee. We recently listed Peerless as one of our forboding signs that bad espresso is ahead.

Good question, Enrico. We believe there’s almost a sort of subtle stereotype when you’re considered a coffee producing nation versus when you are considered a coffee consuming one. The presumption is that coffee producers don’t have a sophisticated coffee palate.

Now we’ve experienced some of the weaker espresso standards in Hawaii, for example — an example that might back up that stereotype. But one of our most memory coffee experiences also took place there.

We know we would enjoy reading more about Indonesian coffee from a consumer perspective.

To get a “real deal” perspective on the “coffee scene” (if that’s even a correct phrase), you might want to ask/e-mail Mr. Toni Wahid (www.cikopi.com). He’s a presence here, I mean, REAL presence. His site is mainly in Indonesian language.

Why the “arabica” part is so important? Well because the majority of coffees here are robusta, to fill the really large market of instant coffees here. Many of them are mixed with corn… So to increase volume. So drinking some off-the-shelve, instant coffees, you can see the tiny bits of corn…

And to create coffees that are synonymous with quality beans etc, well you go the arabica way. In Indonesia we got roasters who are already well established for maybe nearly a century, a kind of family business. Some like the Aroma Coffee factory, kept the coffee for 5 to 6 years before further processing. Other roasters can market their roasted beans days after roasting. So it’s very diverse.

And ironically, all this writing above is created by a person who doesn’t have a single machine aside from his grinder, haha…